Last month, climate-concerned communicators from across Europe jetted off to Norway (#greensgobyair) to discuss, yet again, how better to construct a message that will convince the public that they are not simply a bunch of spin doctors and publicly funded propagandists. ECCO, the organisers of the conference, describe themselves as follows:

ECCO is an informal network with the broad aim of information-sharing and capacity-building among communicators. It strives for increased uptake of climate science and climate communication in Europe. Communicators and communication advisors of climate research centres and associated institutions across Europe are the prime targets of the network. ECCO membership is personal and by invitation only. ECCO will aim to improve its members’ communication capacity through the sharing of ideas, best practices and knowledge, and by providing a forum for discussion and support.

The conference was described as a kick-off-conference "as part of the network’s efforts to prepare the scientific community in Europe, and in particular communications officers working for the home institutions of IPCC authors, for the launch of the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report".

Reader Comments (58)

Also Richard Black was there, showing once again how unbiased he was at the BBC. I agree, they are really worried, but by the failure of "climate science" to give the right answers, not by the fate of the planet.

The Norwegian government established CICERO (the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research – Oslo) by royal decree in 1990. CICERO is an independent research center associated with the University of Oslo. //Information

The climate problem is complex. CICERO has a national mandate to make information about climate research and climate policy accessible to various target groups: students, teachers, politicians, government, industry and business, media and the general public. Our most important information channels are our website and our popular-scientific climate magazine Klima. The magazine is published six times a year and is distributed free of charge to subscribers.

CICERO also offers free subscriptions to Klimanytt – a press clip service that sends an overview of national and international climate news to subscribers by e-mail. And our Climate Forum creates a meeting place where researchers and representatives from government and business and industry can exchange information and viewpoints.

CICERO participates in a broad network of research communities both nationally and internationally. Several of our researchers also hold positions at the University of Oslo, and CICERO houses several PhD students.

CICERO is located in the Oslo Centre for Interdisciplinary Environmental and Social Research (CIENS). We cooperate actively with many of the other CIENS institutes. We also work closely with other Norwegian research institutes in the fields of political science and economics.

CICERO cooperates with a number of research communities throughout Europe and North America. We have also established an active network in several developing countries, including China and India.

CICERO participates actively in the assessment work of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). We are also represented in several boards of directors and commissions, as well as in international and national committees. CICERO contributes regularly to governmental reports and hearings. //http://www.cicero.uio.no/about/index_e.aspx

Its not all bad news , whilst they still have not get the problem is that its the message not the way its sold which is wrong. They will continue to think that its just requires 'one more push' of BS selling to get them 'victory '

The lies , the smears , the half-truths and the treating the public like fools these people have done has done more damage to 'the cause ' than much work by AGW sceptics.

Still with Bob 'fast fingers ' Ward on board they will certainly have the minutes of meeting done very quick , well he has to be good at something !

No doubt they will discuss Gavin Schmidt's latest admission: " perfect maths plus bad assumptions equals BS." I assume he was talking about the assumption that feedback governing water vapour content is always positive.

@not banned yet 9:55 AM"CICERO is an independent research center associated with the University of Oslo."

To illustrate just how independent CICERO is, consider the fact that it was established on the initiative of then Prime Minister of Norway Mrs. Gro Harlem Brundtland, with the stated mission of researching the human caused global warming due to CO2. That was a given.

Jun 2, 2013 at 10:02 AM | KNR"..whilst they still have not get the problem is that its the message not the way its sold which is wrong..."////////////////////////////////////////

And the problem for them is:

i) Since 2000, CET shows that winter temperatures have fallen by almost 1.5degC. All in Europe have for some years been experiencing colder and snowier winters, and the public know this as they feel the cold; and

ii) Energy prices (throughout Europe) have more than doubled in the past 8 or so years. The public know this since they are feeling it in their pockets.

The public are paying more and feeling cold. For all the spin in the world, it is a hard sell against these basic facts.

They mock themselves and hardly need any help from us. Every little beany that they go on gives more amunition to the realists. Apart from on these blogs and in a few failing newspapers, with the occasional reference on the Beeb the average person neither sees, nor cares, about any Climate Change BS. They have much more important things to do, like planning the summer getaway to Spain and getting a loan for the new kitchen. My worry is the indoctrination in schools by wrong headed teachers and politically motivated curricula. Before children have had a chance to learn to think rationally they are fed this garbage. It is exactly the same process as the old church schools and the youth wings of various unpleasant organisations. I will not be around to care but it will be a shame if our future generations are hobbled by this ecco green lunacy and that they are subject to the kind of restrictions imposed by the Marxist communists. If Agenda 21 wins, the world and the young people in it will lose. The kind of thing to which I refer: http://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/10452775.Lessons_in_wind_power_for_Mabe_pupils/

They should just be honest and admit what it is: a “false consciousness” conference.

It's amazing how compelling this Marxist concept remains. In short, we are all too stupid to understand what our betters know to be true. So, instead of trying to convince us with facts, they talk about how to ‘persuade’ us.

It goes to the very heart of the post-modern Marxist view that is held by most of our modern elites.

Richard Black describes himself as a 'long time" BBC environment correspondent. Ah Hem. Exactly how long was he an environment correspondent? And was it any longer than his time as a radio studio manager? The way people rewrite history and gig themselves up!

I usually describe these sorts of confabs as discussions by people with a shared vision of the future, but it is really starting to look like they do, actually, coordinate all this stuff among themselves. They insist that there is no "conspiracy", but when you look at the activities, it really seems to meet the definition...

Somehow I get the impression that the climate communication they will be producing is not meant to be an objective and fair assessment. Hence the need to formally disassociate themselves from the IPCC.

I'm wondering whether the #greensgobyair phenomenon could partly be due to greens who fly perceiving themselves as having earned enough "moral credits", in other areas, to do so without guilt.

Something along the lines of the "halo of green consumerism" (Mazar and Zhong, 2010), maybe? If air travel is considered something bad - George Monbiot even equated it to child abuse, after all, and Caroline Lucas equated it to knife crime - then that "bad" might be cancelled out by "good" works and guilt-free air travel could be enjoyed, as a result.

An additional way of reconciling being green and flying might be to project the guilt onto someone else. Greenpeace's James Turner writes in the Los Angeles Times, this weekend, of his refusal to feel guilty about driving or flying (h/t The Hockey Schtick and Tom Nelson). Oil companies, he claims, 'indefensibly refuse to pay for the carbon their products - though they would say "your cars" - spew into the atmosphere'. He writes:

In the battle against climate change, we should not be waging guilt trips on one another. Rather, we should take the fight to those who use our sense of personal responsibility against us. Climate change is a problem, and we must fix it. But it's certainly not our fault.

Ditto aviation, perhaps, and greens blaming the oil companies and airline industry for the CO2 "their products" rather than "your flights" emit?

The disassociation between producers and consumers has always been a major plank of the communications strategy. For example, in Australia the Government claimed that its carbon tax was aimed at "big polluters" and not consumers. Some consumers (but by no means all) received cash to compensate for the inevitable price rises. There is, of course, no way of compensating for job losses and business contractions/closures.

Remember this, ho ho ho - and this is what it will all boil down to - ha boil - did I really say that? Energy bill third and final reading coming up, we are all doomed and ECCO to their thoughts and prayers - Britain goes down the renewables chute to 'agrarian heaven'.

DEFRA, in their report “Delivering the Benefits of Smart Appliances SPMT10_043 Final Report to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs of September 2011” stated: “No longer is it considered viable for electricity to be provided ‘on demand’ in response to the requirements of end-users.”

Game not suiting you?

Change the bloody goalposts.

In the not so distant future...........................one day we will regret this, but unfortunately it [Britain's energy provision and supply] - is going to deteriorate considerably before it is righted, for our politicians still do not get it - what will it take??

“No longer is it considered viable for electricity to be provided ‘on demand’ in response to the requirements of end-users.” Is that really what a government department has written? In effect, the wants of the customers are of no concern to the supplier?

The time is coming for revolution – if the needs of we, the people, are to be ignored in such an arrogant manner, then the time has most definitely come for revolution, and string the barstewards who can make such a comment up from the highest of lamp-posts.

As an aside, to be seen off Weymouth today is a “gun”-boat (sans visible gun) labelled “Border Force”. WTF!!! Where is the navy?! Send them in to blow those upstarts out of the water! Methinks there is a substantial amount of empire-building going on in the not-so-civil service.

I'm thinking about how pleased that the population was with all the 'troughers' at the House of Commons and therefore hope that #greensgobyair goes viral and one of the broadsheet similarly gors to town kn them and that the public gives this alarmist shower the shoeing they deserve.

Radical RodentAre you by any chance saying that those of us who have been banging the drum about smart meters and "managing demand" being a euphemism for "managing supply" have been wasting our time?Did you really not believe what we were saying?Incredible as it may seem (and I agree that some energy bigwigs and civil servants have been doing a bit of talking in parables) that is the current position of the government. In due course you will get energy when the government says you can have it. If the demand is too great your smart meter will cut off one or more of your appliances for as long as necessary which could well mean until the ongoing sub-zero spell lasts and the windmills start turning again.No, they do not plan to build lots more gas-fired power stations. No, they are not planning to provide the back-up needed to keep the lights on or the trains running or the traffic lights working or your central heating pumps or fridges or freezers or computers or mobile phones active.Because reducing CO2 emissions is the only way to prevent the runaway global warming that is just round the corner.As it was "just round the corner" five years ago. And ten years ago. And fifteen years ago. And twenty years ago.

Mike J - it's rather like water, isn't it? The sensible, obvious thing to do when faced with increasing demand and probable shortages is to build more reservoirs, but as Booker said, the EU in a communication (COM 2007) say no, we need to accustom ourselves to using less water. Hence the pious bullshit from the water companies and the plans for reservoirs put on hold or scrapped.

This conference would make a good subject for an HM Bateman cartoon - the man who wondered if global warming was really a problem.

"My worry is the indoctrination in schools by wrong headed teachers and politically motivated curricula. Before children have had a chance to learn to think rationally they are fed this garbage."

Your fears are unfounded, and your examples show why.

The church schools have not bred a generation of religious people (quite the opposite) and generations of left-leaning teachers have led to a Tory government and a Labour Party that has abandoned almost all its Socialist roots. Nor did the Communists have any more luck with school indoctrination, nor the Fascists.

Kids take a while to reach intellectual levels which enable them to do high level maths, literature etc. That does not mean they are malleable putty before then. Quite the opposite, which is why it is so hard to teach them the curriculum subjects. They arrive a high school quite capable of sorting out who is telling them politically motivated bullshit and who is telling them a credible story (i.e. one with caveats and exceptions).

Kids will believe what they are taught at home, at least until they reach full maturity. Teachers they mostly endure.